Vacation Part 1: OBX

I spent my last week of glorious, glorious vacation in North Carolina in the Outer Banks (OBX)! We drove down Friday night/Saturday morning, for about a 13 hour road trip. We stayed on the island of Manteo, in my friend Michelle's condo. Her condo was about 2 minutes away from the beach and was sandwiched in between a few canals, so it was very pretty, to say the least!

Our view from our window! 

As soon as we got to the OBX, before we took naps or unpacked, we went STRAIGHT to the beach! Us pale Michigan kids needed some good ol' Vitamin D, after being inside studying for finals, so the beach was absolutely perfect.

After we got done at the beach, we went to the grocery store and got our food for the week. We made this trip CRAZY budgeted. The cost to stay in Michelle's condo was $100 total (split 6 ways: $17 each, woo!) and the cost of transportation was just gas (about $100 each)...so, overall it was extremely innexpensive. To cut costs even more, we decided that we would make our own lunches and some of our dinners. We each partnered up. The first night (which was Cinco de Mayo), Michelle and Jack made tacos, bacon guacamole, and chips/queso....delicious! 

 

 The next day, all of us were RIDICULOUSLY sunburned. So, we decided to make it an indoor day at the local aquarium.

That night, we ordered pizza. I went out to pick it up...and when I got back, my awesome friends had this set up for my (early) birthday!

The next day, we decided to be educational and went to visit the Wright Brother's Memorial! 

That night, we decided to make a bonfire and roast marshmallows. Unfortunately, we all fail boy scouts. We could get the fire started, but it kept going out. So, we came up with a more.....creative....way to make S'mores.

The next two days, we went back to the beach! Michelle had bought a...special drinking toy, which we decided to use! We also tested our skills at sand castle making!

On Tuesday, we also went to this amazing all-you-can-eat sea food buffet. It was so tasty. I ate far too many crab legs, but they were fantastic! I want more now.

After our sea food buffet, we went to a really unique store. Its the "Brew Thru", which is a drive through liquor store! Who knew that could be legal?

At 6 AM on Thursday morning, we packed up our cars and (sadly) drove out of the OBX. It was a really amazing vacation, but alas all good things must come to end. Luckily we weren't driving straight home. Instead, we went on to DC!!! 

Spring Semester... COMPLETE!

Another semester down! I finished my last final on the May 3rd and have been enjoying my much needed relaxing vacation (more on that later)! This semester went by SO fast! Its kind of crazy. Like I mentioned before, we had at least two (sometimes three) big exams every week during the semester, so they kept us quite busy, to say the least. So far, I have taken 53 medical school exams and a countless number of quizzes. CRAZZZZZZYYYYY.

Even though this semester was much more intense in terms of exams, I am happy to say I had a lot more free time than I did first semester. Instead of spending hours and hours in the anatomy lab in the evenings and weekends, I actually had this time free to study. So, even though we had lots of things to do, we had plenty of time to do them. It was fabulous. I felt much less stressed, managed my time much more easily, and actually performed better! I ended up with above a 90% average in all of my classes! My school is Pass/No Pass, so grades really don't matter at all...but there is a statistic that if you get a 90% in your classes, there is over a 99% first time pass-rate for the USMLE board exam. So, thats promising! 

As for now, tomorrow is the first day of our (short) summer semester! Only 7 weeks left until my real summer semester begins. However, even though I still have school, this semester's load seems quite light. I only have 3 classes: 

1) Pharmacology 

2) Radiology

3) Clinical Skills

Pharmacology is supposed to be challenging, but do-able. Radiology is supposed to be a cake class. Clinical Skills...well, for the first two weeks... I get to go play with babies in the nursery. So, I'm more excited than nervous about this semseter! Stay tuned if my prediction about this semester is correct! 

Medicine Ball

Medicine Ball was last weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is an annual event that includes a formal dinner, faculty awards, student "mock" paper-plate awards, video follies and a big dance party. As a student council member, I have been busy planning this event for months, so I was really anxious/excited for it to arrive. I had built it up in my head so much, that I was also nervous it wouldn't actually live up to my expectations. Well, it definitely did! In fact, I think I had even more fun than I thought I would have! It was so fun to have everyone get dressed up, have a really classy nice meal, and let loose with great friends. Heres some pictures of the event: 

Getting ready! Should out to Amanda A. for
making my hair look so pretty! :) 

S and I at dinner! 

Me presenting all of the student
"mock"  paper-plate awards

This years theme: Casino Royale;
I obviously hit up the blackjack tables! 

Amanda and I at the event

And now for your entertainment, my two favorite follies: 

Peru Fundraising

This July, I will be going to Peru with a group of 10 other medical students, to provide free medical, dental, and health education services. For the first week, we will be working in local hospitals, assisting doctors with medical care. For the second week, we will be assisting with cleft-palate and cleft-lip surgeries. During my last week, I will be traveling throughout the country and hiking to Machu Picchu. I am so excited and can't wait to share my pictures and memories with all of you. For now, I am trying to fundraise for my trip, because helping people in foreign countries ain't cheap! If you would like to support this trip and help me out, please click the link below! Any donation will help! 


Click to Donate to Meeee! 


Thank you for your support!!!


On another note, I just finished my neuroscience final. So, all I have left is my Virology final on Tuesday and Pathology final on Thursday! After that, semester number two of medical school is over and I am a embarking on a fabulous/much needed week long vacation to the outer banks of North Carolina with my favorite med school friends. So excited! 

Breslin Center

Today was Second Look Day for the incoming class of 2016. So, I volunteered to be a tour guide. As part of this job, we were invited to attend the reception at the end of the day at the Breslin Center, the basketball stadium at MSU. I had seen the outside of the building many times, but have not yet gotten the chance to go inside. So, I was pretty excited. When we entered, the staff told us they were offering tours of the Breslin for whoever wanted to go on one. I was all about that. Coming from EGHS (a high school known for producing good college athletes), to UCLA, and now to MSU, I have always been a big school sports fan. So, I was a little over-excited for this tour:

I <3 Sparty

Izzo's Office! Sooo cool! 

LOTS of big trophies everywhere! 

Championship Rings

1 Year Blog-aversary!

 Today marks the one year anniversary of my blog! It has been one of the best, most life-changing years of my life. So, I thought it would be nice to do a picture diary of some of highlights of my last year! 

After 8 years, this was my last summer working for CSD! 

Going away party! (Rafting portion)

Going away party! (Dinner portion)

Cross Country Road Trip: Yellowstone! 

Cross Country Roadtrip: Mount Rushmore

First week in Michigan! Meeting my roommates! 

Orientation Week: Community Service

White Coat Ceremony

Pretending to be a doctor, part 1: Surgery Scrub Session

Pretending to be a doctor part 2: Casting Clinic

Pretending to be a doctor part 3: Intubation Clinic

Joining Student Council

Working hard and playing hard!
(Anatomy flashcards at the bar) 

My first snow!

Trip to Disneyworld with S! 

Kelsey's Bachelorette Party in Vegas

Its been an amazing last year! I have learned an incredible amount in school, I have traveled to a lot of new places (all across America) and I have met the most amazing people (shout out to A team). I can't believe I am almost done with my first year of medical school already and can't wait to share with all of you blog readers what I am up to over the next three years! 

Crosstown Showdown

Last night, about 20 of my classmates and I went to the annual "Crosstown Showdown!" This is a MSU (college team) v. Lansing Lugnuts (Minor League team).

We started the evening at the Roadhouse Pub. Then, we headed into downtown Lansing to go to the Colley Baseball Stadium. When I first heard that this was an annual game, I thought it was a really cool idea, but expected the Lugnuts to kick MSU's butt...they are a professional team, after all. However, after 6 innings, the score was 0-0. To be honest, it was kind of a boring game at that point. I'm just glad I was surrounded by great company to make it really fun! Top of the 7th, MSU again gets 3 outs without any runs, but then something changed. When the Lansing Lugnuts went to bat, they made not 1, not 2, not 3..but 7 runs! 7! In one inning. It was pretty crazy. I was obviously rooting for MSU, but at that point I was excited for some excitement!

So, in the end, MSU lost, but it was a really great event. Its always fun to get out of my little radiology/clinical center bubble. I can't wait for this summer to go to more baseball games in downtown Lansing!